Recent efforts to improve high speed bearings such as those used in turbo-compressor units employed in modern air cycle machinery for aircraft cooling and ventilation, have led to the development of fluid film hydrodynamic bearings such as those disclosed and claimed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,082,375 and 4,247,155 to Fortmann and 4,116,503 and 4,133,585 to Licht, all assigned to the assignee of the present invention, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,635,534 to Barnett. Generally, the fluid film hydrodynamic bearings disclosed in the above named patents operate on the principle that a rotating member such as a shaft or thrust runner and an adjacent element such as a smooth foil or the like establish and maintain a pressurized fluid film layer therebetween, the fluid film layer, sometimes referred to as a fluid film wedge, providing lubricated support for the rotating member. Often, a spring or resilient backing member is disposed between the foil and a stationary member (otherwise referred to as a cartridge, retainer or base) to accommodate deflections of the foil due to pressurization thereof for maintenance of optimum film layer geometry, thus providing support for the rotating member and foils against bearing loading and imbalances such as whirl and the like. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that in providing overall support for the rotating member, the resilient backing member must be stiff enough to adequately resist shaft excursions due to normal loading and imbalances. However, such stiffness should not come at the expense of damping, stability, and bearing efficiency.